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WASHINGTON — U. S. President Donald Trump had nothing on his public schedule for Friday, other than a noon intelligence briefing. So he had time to amble out to the White House lawn and do a half-hour interview with his favourite morning show, Fox and Friends, and then to take 18 more minutes of questions from reporters.

He lied a lot.

U.S. President Donald Trump speaks to reporters on the North Lawn of the White House on Friday. (Evan Vucci / AP)

Here is a list of his false claims:

Fox and Friends interview

1) “President Xi, he’s a great man, he’s a wonderful guy, but at some point we have to straighten it out. We lost $500 billion in trade deficits last year.”

The U.S. had a $337 billion trade deficit with China last year. The $375 billion figure counts only trade in goods and excludes trade in services. Trump, as usual, did not say he was doing so.

3) “Each year, close to $800 billion in losses on trade.”

The U.S. has never had a $800 billion trade deficit. (Trump uses “losses” to mean deficits.) Last year’s deficit was $566 billion. It was only $800 billion if you do not count trade in services. Trump, as usual, did not say he was doing so.

4) “The European Union made $151 billion on us last year.”

The U.S. had a $102 billion trade deficit with the European Union last year. The $151 billion figure counts only trade in goods and excludes trade in services. Trump, as usual, did not say he was doing so.

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5) “If you notice when I came over, they were all saying about separating the families. And that’s a Democrat bill. That’s Democrats wanting to do that.” And: “That’s the law. And that’s what the Democrats gave us.”

No law, let alone a Democratic law, requires Trump’s administration to separate children from parents detained at the border. This is a Trump policy.

6) “Most people now, really, they want The Wall.”

Polls have consistently shown that far more people oppose Trump’s proposed border wall than support it. A CBS News poll in March found 60 per cent opposed, 38 per cent in favour.

7) “You know what lottery is? That’s where you pick names to come into the country. When a country gives names, they’re not giving us their finest. So we’re picking people, it’s not good.”

This is, as always, an inaccurate description of Diversity Visa Lottery program. Contrary to Trump's regular claim, foreign countries do not “give” the names of problem citizens to the U.S. lottery in an attempt to get them to leave their home country. Would-be immigrants sign up on their own, as individuals, of their own free will, presumably because they want to immigrate.

8) “ICE: We’re getting MS-13 out by the thousands.”

“By the thousands” is an exaggeration; it is more like “by the hundreds,” or “by the dozens.” Immigration and Customs Enforcement told PolitiFact that its investigations division arrested 405 MS-13 members in the first quarter of fiscal 2018. The acting director of ICE, Thomas Homan, said in December that “a renewed focus on IDing and dismantling the ultraviolent MS-13 gang led to nearly 800 arrests in (fiscal year) 2017, for an 83 per cent increase over last year.” That figure is disputed, as some of the people arrested may not be actual members of the gang. Even if they are, though, that number is far from “thousands.”

9) “You have 13 angry Democrats. I call ’em 13 angry Democrats. And others worked for Obama for eight years. I mean, you have no Republicans.”

The person in charge of Robert Mueller’s investigation, Mueller himself, is a Republican. Trump has previously claimed that Mueller himself was the person who worked for Obama for eight years; Mueller served under Obama for less than five years after serving more than seven years under the Republican president who appointed him, George W. Bush.

11) “They’re getting people (convicted of lying to the FBI) who say something a little bit off. Is it a nice day? ‘Well, you know, no it’s not a great day.’ Oops. He lied. He goes — have problems.”

Nobody ensnared by the Mueller investigation has pleaded guilty for minor lies to the FBI about mundane matters like the weather. Former national security adviser Michael Flynn and former campaign foreign policy adviser George Papadopoulos pleaded guilty to lying about their contacts with Russia. Former deputy campaign chairman Rick Gates pleaded guilty to lying about the details of a meeting involving former campaign chairman Paul Manafort, a lobbyist, and a congressman — falsely claiming he was told there was no discussion of Ukraine at the meeting.

12) “I gave a press conference in Singapore that was like an hour and a half.”

13) “She’s (press secretary Sarah Huckabee Sanders) got a lot of the father’s gene, ’cause her father (former Arkansas Gov. Mike Huckabee) is great. Don’t forget, he got up there on that debate stage and he said ‘nobody’s gonna beat Trump.’ And he was right. And ‘I even decided to wear a Trump tie.’”

Mike Huckabee did not say in a debate that “nobody’s gonna beat Trump.” During the Republican primary debate in which Huckabee announced he was wearing a Trump tie, he also called Trump a “good man” and said, “Donald Trump would be a better president every day of the week and twice on Sunday rather than Hillary.” He did not predict victory.

There is no evidence Obama told Trump anything like this; such a remark would be a total departure from Obama’s long-held views on North Korea. Obama’s office declined to comment, but Ned Price, a former special assistant to Obama and spokesperson for the National Security Council, called Trump’s remark “absolute revisionist history,” saying, “I’ve never heard anything even remotely like that coming up during that session.” Obama’s strategy of “containment and deterrence” was “predicated in part on the understanding that a military conflict on the (Korean) Peninsula would be nothing short of catastrophic,” Price said. In the past, Trump has said what news outlets have reported: Obama told him North Korea was the biggest or most urgent problem he would face, not that war was inevitable.

15) “To build a highway in this country takes 19 years of approvals. I have it down to two years.”

While some contested and complicated infrastructure projects have taken this long to get approved, there is no basis for Trump’s suggestion that a time frame of “19 years” is standard. The Treasury Department reported under Obama: “Studies conducted for the Federal Highway Administration concluded that the average time to complete a NEPA (environmental) study increased from 2.2 years in the 1970s, to 4.4 years in the 1980s, to 5.1 years in the 1995 to 2001 period, to 6.6 years in 2011.” Trump himself used a “10 years” figure in announcing an infrastructure proposal last year: “Today it can take 10 years just to get the approvals and permits needed to build a major infrastructure project,” he said then. Further, there is no current evidence that Trump has already succeeded in reducing the standard time frame to two years, although he says this is his intention.

16) “We’ve done more — I don’t say this in a bragging way — actually, some of the haters actually say this — we’ve done more in 500 days, so now it’s 510 days, than any 500-day president, first term, by far.”

Trump’s critics are not saying this.

Media scrum:

17) “I think that the report yesterday, maybe more importantly than anything, it totally exonerates me. There was no collusion, there was no obstruction, and if you read the report, you’ll see that.” And: “If you read the IG report I’ve been totally exonerated.”

The inspector general report released on Thursday, which assessed the conduct of the FBI during its investigation into Hillary Clinton’s email practices, does not exonerate Trump on the questions of possible collusion with Russia or obstruction of justice. The report was simply not about these subjects.

18) “Manafort has nothing to do with our campaign.”

Paul Manafort served as chairman of Trump’s 2016 campaign.

19) “Paul Manafort worked for me for a very short period of time … he worked for me, what, for 49 days or something? A very short period of time.”

Manafort worked for Trump’s campaign for 144 days, from March to August 2016.

20) “I hate the children being taken away. The Democrats have to change their law. That’s their law … that’s the Democrats’ law.” And: “The Democrats forced that law upon our nation. I hate it. I hate to see separation of parents and children.” And: “The Democrats gave us the laws.”

No law, let alone a Democratic law, requires Trump’s administration to separate children from parents detained at the border. This is a Trump policy.

21) “We had great chemistry. He (Kim Jong Un) gave us a lot … He gave us the remains of our great heroes.”

There is no evidence that Kim has actually returned any remains of U.S. soldiers killed in the Korean War. The joint statement signed by Kim and Trump in Singapore includes a North Korean commitment to repatriate these remains — “The United States and the DPRK commit to recovering PoW/MIA remains, including the immediate repatriation of those already identified,” it says — but there is no sign that Kim has already done so.

22) “I feel badly for General Flynn. He's lost his house. He's lost his life. And some people say he lied, and some people say he didn’t lie. I mean, really, it turned out maybe he didn’t lie.”

While there was some dispute within the FBI about whether Flynn lied to the FBI, he pleaded guilty to doing so. In December, Trump himself tweeted, “I had to fire General Flynn because he lied to the Vice-President and the FBI.”

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